BELGRADE -- An official of an international
committee set up to defend Slobodan Milosevic Thursday
warned of catastrophic consequences for Yugoslavia if the
former president is handed over to the UN war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.

"Be sure that misery, poverty, famine and
total destruction would prevail in the country" if
Milosevic is sent to The Hague, said Mikhail Kuznecov,
deputy chairman of the International Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic.

"Do not have any illusions that the
United States or NATO will give you money and help you
rebuild your economy?" he told reporters.

The committee was set up on March 24, just a
week before Milosevic's arrest by Belgrade reformers on
charges of abuse of power and corruption, to clear the ex-president's
name over the war crimes indictment by the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). NATO
"is aiming to destroy Yugoslavia and its citizens,"
Kuznecov said, adding that Milosevic "is in prison
since he was the only one to confront the Alliance, and
even managed to stop it."

He said that no "law can legalise"
Milosevic's extradition to ICTY, as the move "is
clearly banned by the Constitutions of Yugoslavia and
Serbia."

The committee, chaired by Bulgarian MP Velko
Valkanov, and grouping figures like former US Attorney
General Ramsey Clark and writer Harold Pinter, said it
has members from 20 countries throughout the world.

Its activities are supported by more than 600
prominent figures from 30 countries, said a statement on
its website (www.predsednikmilosevic.com).

Kuznecov said the committee has set up an
international working group to monitor legal procedures
against Milosevic, led by Canadian lawyer Christopher
Black, who had visited the former president in prison
last week.

Black was among the lawyers who in 1999
brought war crimes charges against NATO leaders for the
bombing campaign on Yugoslavia.

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